🥖 Afternoon, D.C.

• This newsletter is best enjoyed with a warm baguette.

📺 What's on the tube: D.C.'s pro teams are off tonight, but there's championship baseball.

• ⚾️ Brewers at Rays, 8pm, FOX — Milwaukee is one win away from its first World Series title.

Today’s newsletter is 697 words — a 2.5-minute read.

Your neighborhood's next viral bakery might be inside someone's house — and scoring a box of pastries can feel like winning the lottery.

Why it matters: More home cooks are turning their baking talents into businesses, keeping overhead low while serving up fresh bread, creative pastries and a side of community.

Driving the news: Capitol Hill's hottest clubs are its cottage bakeries.

• At the Pastry Pedaler, a new German-style microbakery, lines stretch around the block. Its last two online drops sold out in 30 seconds, and customers waited up to 90 minutes at a recent pop-up.
• "Why does buying a Franzbrötchen feel like fighting for a spot at D.C. summer camp?" the owner joked on Instagram.

Zoom in: Jill Nguyen of Capitol Jill Baking started by giving free sourdough to homebound neighbors during the pandemic. Six years later, her scallion focaccia and other treats have a devout following.

• Nguyen focuses on hard-to-find specialties like cardamom buns that Swedish Embassy staff seek out.
• Pre-orders, a necessity for many microbakeries, mean less food waste. Nguyen says she hasn't thrown away a baked good in four and a half years.

And pickups double as neighborhood gatherings.

• "It's not the easiest way to get the goods you want, but there's an element of joy — it's a third place where you can come in and run into people," Nguyen tells Axios.

The intrigue: Microbakeries work well in a down economy — for the sellers, and the buyers looking for an experience and a little treat.

• Nguyen says customers are buying fewer expensive cakes, but they're still splurging on cookies and bread.
• "I think people just really want to find a way to gather, cheaper," she says.

The big picture: The home-baking boom is nationwide. Monthly seller signups on home-chef platform Hotplate doubled in July, its co-founders tell Axios.

The bottom line: Forget the stock market. Nguyen gauges the national mood by requests for her free sourdough starter, which spike during stressful times like pre-midterms.

• "And I'm getting a lot right now," she says.

About the permitting

🍰 Former President Obama compared President Trump's gilded White House makeover to a Cheesecake Factory, prompting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to fire back outside a D.C. location.

• It's not Obama's first food controversy: Conservatives called him "President Poupon" after he ordered Dijon mustard on a burger in Arlington in 2009. (Axios)

🫠 Job-hunting in D.C.? It's brutal out there. Job seekers describe applying for hundreds of jobs, getting ghosted and even interviews with AI agents. (The 51st)

😋 Bivalves, beer and big-screen sports are on tap at local mussel house Augie's, which opened yesterday in Cathedral Heights. The 150-seat beer hall boasts 15 TVs and a dozen shellfish preparations, from beer-and-bacon to green curry.

The University of Maryland is offering free tuition. The catch? You have to watch its football team for an entire game.

Why it matters: With a 2-5 record, a coaching vacancy and plenty of empty seats, Maryland is pulling out all the stops to get fans in stands.

Driving the news: Students who stay until the fourth quarter at Saturday's matchup against Illinois will have a chance to win free tuition for the spring semester.

• The prize is worth the equivalent of in-state tuition, roughly $8,000 for a semester.
• Not a student but still interested, for some reason, in attending the noon kickoff? Maryland is also offering a buy-one-get-two-free ticket deal.

State of play: It'll be Maryland's first game since the school agreed to pay Michael Locksley nearly $10 million to not coach amid a disastrous season.

• Interim coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim will lead the Terps for their final five games.

Tell a student

🥄 Mark is eating lots of yogurt (Fage with jam and granola).

🎃 Anna is also eating a lot of yogurt, thanks to Clear Spring Creamery's amazing pumpkin flavor.

This newsletter was edited by Alexa Mencia Orozco.